Thank you CuddlyChristina for helping me finish this fanfiction. This isn't the final chapter, but I wrote everything I needed to for the story. Thank you loyal readers and enjoy this chapter I've kept on long hiatus.
XXX
Camille twirled the keys around in her little fingers. She ran to the vault room knowing the police would be here any second. It wouldn't take long for her to slide the key into the room's door.
Now she got to see every little girls dream, a room full of drawers with peoples personal possessions in them.
"Yes!" she exclaimed numerous times as she began claiming the numerous bags of money the workers had stored, but unfortunately for her, the sound of bullets would soon be heard.
Before Camille had time to turn around, she was shot in her leg.
She could feel all the regrets in her life pouring out and all her boldness fading from her heart.
"Quick..." she muttered, offering her hand to her accomplices. However, they ignored her and took the money with them. "Sorry, but you're on your own!" one of them called out.
Camille grit her teeth as the police approached her, putting her in handcuffs and bringing her outside and into her car. "The thieves are still out there, though we managed to apprehend one of them." one of the officers spoke into his transmitter.
Camille walked out through the front door, all the angry and disbelieving faces of seeing a young girl trying to rob a bank. Thankfully, it didn't take long for a familiar face to make the scene. That familiar face was none other than Nuo.
"So this is the depraved crazy girl who actually thought she could rob a bank?" Nuo said, looking around to make sure the same police officers from yesterday weren't around. "I'm going to need to interrogate her, sir and madams."
"The hell you will!" The sound of a voice exactly akin to the police officer from yesterday shouted. "We are taking this girl down to the station to rat out her accomplices."
"I'm sure she'll drop their names for just a chocolate bar, but what I have for her is much more important." Nuo reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. The wallet was black, sheen, and looked expensive, but he dropped it on the ground just to show off an I.D. card. "I am KaibaCorp's personal detective and this little felon is guilty of stealing his duel disks a few weeks prior to this rivalry. Ergo, I would like to speak with her."
"Ergo, this his is a completely different matter!"
"Just let him talk to her!" another officer told him.
The first officer sighed, before he reluctantly complied as he said, "Fine. Do what you will."
Nuo and Camille sat down. Nuo picked at his fingernails to create a waiting tension while Camille eased the tension flipping Nuo the bird, her wrist hurt moving it as fast as she did.
"You and I have been near each other on a few occasions, right?" Nuo asked.
"More than I want to admit. Does that make you my ticket to getting out of these shackles?" Camille asked, blood dripping on the floor from her bullet wound.
"No, but I am going to warn you that someone six times crazier than me and three times more ruthless is going to be looking for you so he can duel you."
"That does sound like a crazy bag, but why should I be afraid of a Duel Monsters game?"
"First of all I don't know why they call it 'Duel Monsters' when most games are won by the right timing in using a Magic or Trap card, but I can assure you it's not like those toy stores that host tournaments or that person you met on an online gaming room, this person is going to gamble with your very soul the moment you accept his challenge. Just saying no won't stop him-the only way to get out is to get away before he finds you."
Camille's eyebrows furrowed. "So this...whatchamacallit...is a monster daring to kill us all?" she asked.
"Worse...enslave us." Nuo replied.
"That seems like not a big deal since being a slave of his is better than spending the rest of my life in jail."
"It don't matter; all our lives are very much at stake here if we don't stop Aethba!" Nuo exclaimed.
Nuo could hear the police officer who didn't like him explode with command. "Time's up!"
He looked over at Camille and asked, "You need to think this over very soon, understand?"
She shrugged before simply nodding wordlessly.
Nuo left, decided to use his detective skills to find her accomplishes and put them in jail with Camille.
Searching high and low, he'd eventually find them in a treehouse of sorts. 'A treehouse?' a puzzled Nuo thought to himself.
He wasn't stupid enough to go up into the treehouse and face them all like an action hero, he just went into their home and called the police. It was a good thing for him police don't turn on their sirens when driving to a place where bank robbers are hiding.
By the time the cops arrived, the accomplices flinched when they heard the sirens from outside. "Who's out there?!" one asked.
"The names Nuo, the one action hero who actually calls the cops instead of going in alone guns blazing." Nuo said, causing one member to go vehement.
"What?! How dare you track us down! How DARE you!" another yelled, even as the cops had snuck into the tree-house to arrest them.
"Oh I'm sorry that it took a Detective to track you down over a bounty hunter. Just deal with your mistakes like real men."
The group of teens simply scowled as they were being handcuffed and sent to the police cars. Though Nuo could certain that he might have to remind them to explain to Camille about Aethba.
'Not that these S-heads are going to help anyone but themselves anyways.' He thought.
XXX
Camille was in the backseat of a police car singing a song better when it's played on a piano. It seemed that the rest of the day was going to suck big time for her.
What's worse than today would be tomorrow if it turned out she was really going to jail. And now she was being chastised by the officer driving the car.
"I have a young girl your age. I want you to tell me where your parents are right now so I can do the talking, one father of a young girl to another." He said.
"Oh go puke in your officer hat, who needs parents, not me."
"Attention: we've received word that the girl's accomplices have been caught. Repeat: the girl's accomplices have been caught." the transmitter bellowed out.
Camille smiled. "Either someone has been playing on a real flute instead of a piccolo or my luck is changing."
She could laugh, if she wasn't slammed into the back of the front seat by her driver suddenly slamming on the breaks.
Her driver saw an elephant in his path.
"What the hell?" he asked himself as he looked out the window to see the giant creature in his way.
The elephant started to change, embroidered by expensive gold bracelets and glass circles around its tusks. It huffed from its nostrils and charged towards the police car.
The cop panicked as he began to hit the car on reverse, and then on drive as he attempted to lose the creature.
Backwards wasn't any better. The silhouette of a bird loom behind him; that small bird became big. Soon a purple haired, yellow face feathered bird with a turnip red underbelly cawed at the car.
The officer's eyes widened in shock, and at the same time, this gave Camille to try and think of a way to escape. With her arms in cuffs in an unmoving car, the only thing she could do was try to take the guard's keys with her mouth.
Looking around the car, she would locate the keys on the passenger seat. She used her mouth, put the keys in her handcuffs, and in no time at all was finally free.
Quickly unlocking the door, she jumped out into the streets. She briefly looked over at the giant creature that was messing around with the police car, and realized that something was very amiss. 'Maybe Nuo was right,' she thought to herself. ' Maybe there is a great threat to the world after all, and that we have to stop him.'
She heard a deep growling noise. In the street, she turned to find a dog staring at her. Then the dog started to grow like the silhouettes before her. Soon she was staring at a massive purple dog with red eyes and gold armor around its ridge.
"Show yourself!" Camille called out.
" Me? " Aethba's voice boomed.
The dog sat down like an obedient dog would. Camille finally got to meet Aethba, petting the monstrous dog than snapping his fingers to get it to scamper away.
"So you're this 'god' that Nuo had been telling me about: I feel like I have second thoughts about being enslaved by something like you." she said.
"Hello, friend of my new enemy. I challenge you to a duel." He brought out a duel disk to challenge her.
"Yeah, not happening. I didn't bring my cards or duel disk when I was...taking my business to the bank." Camille answered.
The duel disk vanished from Aethba's wrist.
"Fine...when we meet again, you will be prepared." he replied with a small grimace.
"Oh, of course I'll be prepared." Camille told him.
He didn't just vanish in the shadows. A raven looked, plummeted down, then turned humanoid and picked him up by its claws. Camille wondered what she was going to do now.
"I'm sure that other officer is fine, I'm fleeing for myself."
True to her word, she quickly fled the scene.
XXX
Nuo's morning was average with the exception of him saying "good morning" to his stepdad, but when he walked in through the school gate he saw other students staring at him. Nuo was uncomfortable with all this staring. Then, they started clapping their hands in a roar.
"What the hell?!" Nuo shouted.
"You found a bunch of bank robbers. Your a hero, Nuo." Anzu said, clapping among the crowd.
"I spend everyday saving the world from criminal masterminds and help the biggest company in New Domino City, but you don't notice me until I find some lousy bank robbers."
"Well, you actually did something pretty heroic besides working for that Kaiba fellow." Jonouchi told him with a small smile.
"Heroic?!" Nuo asked out of befuddlement.
"You went to their base and called them out before the police arrived. They were so scared, they just cuddled together and wept." Honda said to Nuo. He tried patting him on the back, but Nuo knew enough to back away.
"No thanks." he said bluntly.
Nuo was tired of the attention and just wanted to do what he did best: being a better student than everyone else.
Thus, studies came and went, and it seemed like an ordinary, mundane day for Nuo. However, he had been increasingly aware of Aethba, so much so that he needed to talk Yugi and the others about him.
Hopefully Yugi didn't try to stymie his investigation with a useless lead. When the bell rang, Nuo walked out of the class first, but he leaned against the wall and waited for short-stack to come out.
"Hey, Nuo! What's up?" Yugi asked as he exited the classroom.
"Hey, Yugi. I need to talk to you about something seriously grave." Nuo replied.
"Something grave? What do you mean?" he asked with a curious expression.
"I talked to you about this god named Aethba before, and now I'm curious on whether you or your friends have more intel on him-I sound like a military soldier the way I mention that, but I'm sure a smart boy with hair the size of three brains can help me."
"Really? I'd be honored! My friends and I can help you out, as long as we don't make any mistakes." Yugi replied with a smile.
"Damn right you won't screw this up." Nuo told him.
Nuo and Yugi shook hands. This was a short bit of enjoyment before Yugi wasted so much time gathering his friends.
XXX
Camille was going to do what would have happened last night, she was going to duel that pompous outrageous god with her newly made ritual deck. She got her only remaining loyal lackey in New Domino City to keep her duel disk, and after a half hour walk that should have been fourteen miles...she made it to his lair.
"Where are you, Aethba?" she called out, to which he'd finally appear before her.
"Good, good. You've come to play with me lil Camille."
"I've answered your challenge to duel; let's get started!" Camille exclaimed as she summoned her duel disk.
"I'll start by summoning Manji of the Ten Thousand Hands (1400/1000)." Her monster was a deity monster with many hands, but not as many as was said in its name, green and red eyed.
"And since it was summoned, I can add a ritual spell or ritual monster from my deck to my hand. I add Megalith Bethor." she added
Aethba would also get his duel disk out as well as he watched her intently.
He finally pulled out a level eight monsters. "Next I'll activate Megalith Bethor's effect: by tributing him, I can ritual summon for Megalith Ophiel by tributing my Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands (1600/2500)."
Camille summoned a stone angel hovering off the ground on a futuristic UFO she was riding and holding a ball of concentrated blue light.
"And since she was summoned: I can add a Megalith monster from my deck to my hand. I'll add Megalith Phaleg to my hand."
Megalith Phaleg arrived, riding a emerald horse, and clad in golden robes. He also held what appeared to a ball, only made of concentrated green light.
"Megalith Ophiel can be used as a ritual material and activate the ritual itself, a nuance to ritual summoning. So goodbye Megalith Ophiel and Megalith Och. (2500/1600). And for every ritual monster in my graveyard, my Phaleg gains 300 ATK (3100). I set one card facedown and end my turn."
Aethba had this coy look on his face. His lips were so slimy it always seemed like he was licking them. Worst of all, he said something Camille never wanted to hear again.
"I wish you were never born."
Camille flinched. That eerie tone and pronunciation of his speech, he knew about her past...about her wretched mother.
"I activate Malasyian Tornado Clear. I can special summon one Malasyian monster from my hand. I summon Malasyian Invader of Darkness (?/?)."
The Malaysian Invader of Darkness appeared as what resembled a man shrouded in black and purple smoke.
"Next I'll activate the ritual card Malasyian Ritual. I tribute Malasyian Tyrant Dragon to summon Malasyian Performance of Sword (1950/2000)."
The titular card was a man in dark bronze armor, wielding a fairly large sword engraved with gold and silver in one of his hands.
"Now I'll activate Malasyian Fusion. By banishing the Malasyian monster in my graveyard I discarded, I can fusion summon Malasyian Gil Tia the D. Knight (?/?)."
Gil Tia was a tall, giant man in onyx-colored armor that covered his entire body, and wielded a broadsword.
"Congratulations, you summoned three weak monsters at the cost of five out of six of the cards in your hand. You feel like a big man yet?" Camille mocked.
"Correction, I special summoned these three monsters giving me the ample chance of summoning a monster...tribute them. I tribute my Malasyian Invader of Darkness, Malasyian Performance of Sword, and Malasyian Gil Tia to summon...Malasyian The WINGED Dragon of RA! (?/?)."
When the Winged Dragon of Ra emerged, it appeared as a golden dragon with azure blue wings and claws.
"Now my dragon can activate it's special effect: I send cards from the top of my deck equal to the different types of monsters I tributed it, and if I send a Malasyian monster...it gains that monsters ATK." The first two cards he sent were Malasyian Millenium Shield and Malasyian Cyber Tech Alligator which weren't strong enough for the powerhouse on Camille's field, but then he sent the best monster he could send: Malasyian Obelisk the Tormentor. "And thus my monster gains his original ATK of 4000!"
The golden dragon roared and shook the Earth with its intimidating screech.
"Ra, attack her monster!"
A large ball of fire with the same temperature as the sun formed out of the dragon's mouth and was spewed slowly but intensely towards the quivering ritual monster.
"Big deal, I activate Lumenize. This card will negate your attack and give my monster the ATK of your creature until the end of my next turn-"
"You cannot target Ra with any effects and when a monster gains ATK during the damage step, that monsters ATK drops down to...zero."
Camille would make a crack about how that effect sounded like a failed Duel Monster fanart to make new cards draft but not stopping the attack and dropping her monster down to zero...that was an instant KO because she didn't know what to expect.
Instead, she grit her teeth in agitation for a brief moment, before his turn would eventually end. Her once powerful Ritual monster was spewed in fire and the flames spread to her. In no time at all, she was in pain and lamenting her decisions.
Camille: 0
"I don't...How can this happen?!" Camille asked, her eyes widening in shock and horror.
Even though the duel was over, his dragon didn't disappear like all holograms after a duel. He walked slowly towards her, a big cocky smile on his face like he was in a strip club.
"What are you gonna do with me?" Camille asked as she looked with a genuine look of fear.
"Something your mother never did for you...I'm going to raise you to be the daughter she wanted but is far too great to be the one she deserves."
"Me? Your 'daughter'?" Camille asked, blinking in confusion.
"Yes. I don't expect hug or even some gratitude, but with me you will finally get back at those who wronged you, and I will have an ally to face my greatest enemy with: Nuo Yusui."
"The asshole?"
She began flash-backing to her times spent with Nuo, both good times and bad times.
Her worst time was him was the day they first met and the best time was when they, two kindred Canadian's who just wanted to take down two thieves, dueled together.
Needless to say, it looked like she didn't know what to do.
XXX
Nuo was stuck with the abhorrent sight of a man chewing on a sugary bag of candy; his insulin would kick in fighting the sugar making him hungry and then he would eat more...more sugar meaning he would binge eat again. Jounochi and his appetite.
"I've got something!" Nuo exclaimed, thankful he had an excuse not to think about Jounochi's candy. "It says here that the B Grade god we all know likes to immerse himself in entertainment."
"Entertainment? Like what? Video games?" Anzu asked.